More Power to the Manager ✊

Discover the strategies and tools that empower hospitality managers to run their operations smoothly and effectively in our latest blog post. From streamlining communication to boosting staff morale, learn how to maximise your team's potential and drive success with the power of management.
Wil Grace
 • 
Apr 2023
4 min read
Waiter setting tables

Operational hierarchies exist for a reason: they entrust the right people with authority and accountability.

The Trail hierarchy looks like this:

  1. Champion
    Our main contact. The one person responsible for running Trail day to day — managing tasks, setting up sites and inviting managers.
  2. Admin
    Has the same permissions as Champion. Often assigned to head office staff who want reports on all sites.
  3. Manager
    Assigned to & permissions for one or more sites. This can be a General Manager (single site) or Area/Operations Manager (several sites)
  4. Team
    A shared or personal account with access to a single site & limited permissions. Often assigned to a chef, front of house team or site.

Not all sites are the same

Trail helps maintain consistency and standards by distributing tasks from head office to sites.

Sure, specific tasks can be also assigned to specific sites. But what about…

Opening Checks that are identical for everyone except Baker St which also has umbrellas to put out

or

Liverpool St whose bins are kicked over every Saturday night

or

Old signage that needs replacing at Oxford St tomorrow

Are these the kinds of things head office or operations managers will know about? Not according to our customers.

It’s the Managers. Which is why we’ve built powerful new features to help them run better sites 💪

Why empower Managers?

Fundamentally, Managers know the details of what makes their sites tick better than anyone.

  1. More relevant tasks means better engagement, meaning critical tasks are completed and sites are legally and operationally compliant
  2. Reduce the dependency on Admins to manage small changes, freeing them up to analyse results and help low performing sites achieve more
  3. Increase ownership and autonomy within a strict operational framework, leading to a more efficient use of resource

What can Managers do?

Be assigned to one Site or an Area

Managers could previously only be assigned to several sites using Areas. Now, they can be assigned to manage just one — with the same permissions as a multi-site Manager

Trail app tasks

Add items to checklists on existing tasks

If a check is missing it can be added to a site’s checklist just this time or every time the task occurs, such as handover notes. Managers can’t access the Task Planner to create or change organisation tasks.

Trail app checklists

Flag a checklist item as Not Applicable

If a check doesn’t apply to that site — like cleaning equipment they don’t have — it can be marked Not Applicable just this once or every time the task occurs.

Trail app flagging feature

View & complete Manager tasks

Sensitive tasks can be now assigned to Managers only, like accidents, finance, or HR. They’ll appear like a normal task in the site list for them, but won’t be visible to Teams.

Trail app tasks

Re-open tasks

Mistakes happen, and waiting for an Admin just holds everyone up. Managers can now re-open tasks that were marked as done Today (not previous days).

Trail app reopening tasks

Manage lists in widgets & forms

Many widgets remember equipment or food lists from previous days to make it quicker to complete. Managers can now update those lists.

Trail app features

Manage users

With such high staff turnover, keeping user accounts up to date can be a big job. Managers can now add and remove users from their site(s).

Trail app users

View reports

Managers now have better visibility over their sites’ performance through the daily emails, activity feed and Insights section.

Trail app reports

The future 🚀

This is one of the most important features we’ve released and paves the way for a host of features to improve the experience for sites and teams. We strongly recommend that every site is assigned a Manager.

Your Customer Success manager can answer any questions and help get your Managers set up.

What customers are saying

"I f****** love Trail, it's taking my businesses to the next level."
Josh Paterson
Owner
"We rarely provide training to our guys, they just bought into the idea straight away. I love that I have a full visual of everyone's activity in front of me."
Katrin Toots
Compliance Manager
“It’s not a paper diary that’s covered in barbecue sauce. We have clarity over what’s done in our sites and are confident going into our audits.”
Jay Brown
Operations
“The EHO visited almost every site last year and every store was given a five star rating."
Jay Brown
Operations Chef
"We turned our Costa Checks and various compliance forms into regular tasks on Trail, which has contributed to some of the best scores we have had."
Delroy Daniels
Operations Director
"Our teams love it, it gives our managers of all levels absolute clarity on what they need to achieve every day."
James Brown
Operations Director

Rated 5/5 on